'The Voice': Behind the scenes with the Top 5 in the recording studio

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It’s a nondescript building in the middle of Burbank, but this is where the magic happens. This is the location where the contestants from “The Voice” spend a lion’s share of their time, laying down the iTunes versions of the songs they sing week after week live on TV.

NBC invited Zap2it to spend the day in the studio with Season 5’s Top 5 on Friday (Dec. 6) as they recorded the songs they’d be singing during Monday’s live semi-finals, where we were surprised to learn that this experience wasn’t everybody’s first time in the booth.

“I grew up recording,” Team Adam’s Will Champlin reveals. “I produce a lot myself. I know all the mics, I’m very familiar. … Everything I write, I lay down. Record, edit and produce, you know? Everything’s a work in progress. This is more of a quick process because you’re dealing with having to get it out soon, so that’s why it’s kinda laid out live.”

His teammate James Wolpert admits to the same level of experience in the recording studio. “This is actually where I feel more comfortable,” he says as he waits to record his track. “Well, that’s a lie. I love being on stage and performing in front of people, but it’s a different story obviously because we’re on TV and it’s a massively intimidating, large audience. But I have dabbled in home studio engineering and things like that before. [I’m] not very good at it, but I love doing it and have been in studios before and think it’s great.”

Stepping on the other side of the booth might even be in his future, he says: “I love the idea of audio engineering and it’s something that I’d like to learn a lot more about because, apart from singing music, what I really would love to do is write and produce music. I think that’s what I’d like to do next.”

For fellow Team Adam artist Tessanne Chin, whose father built her a recording studio back home in Jamaica, the recording experience here has been a step up of sorts. “I walked in and I was like, ‘OK!’ So it’s different in that way, in the level of production — no offense to Daddy or the studios in Jamaica, but there’s a difference, you know?”

Of the Top 5 (which also includes Team Blake’s Cole Vosbury), it’s young Jacquie Lee who has found herself most in awe of her time in the studio, which has included learning some recording tips from coach Christina Aguilera directly in the booth. “The first time I went into a recording studio was the time I came here. It was really cool,” she says, excitedly. “It’s still really cool!”